The first randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled Phase 2 study of MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of social anxiety in autistic adults is nearing completion. Fear and avoidance behaviors associated with social anxiety interfere with the ability to work, attend school, and develop relationships. The search for [...]

This presentation will summarize past and ongoing studies from the Johns Hopkins Psilocybin Research Project, which started about 15 years ago. Laboratory research includes administering psilocybin to healthy volunteers, psychologically distressed cancer patients, cigarette smokers seeking abstinence, ordained clergy, and beginning and long-term meditators. The [...]

This talk will focus on the regulatory challenges involved in developing psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy through the FDA/EMA process. Issues to be discussed will be the initial reasons behind the strategy of working through the FDA/EMA process, the rationale for why MAPS is prioritizing MDMA as the [...]

Existential distress in reaction to a life-threatening illness is often undertreated and mistreated in western medicine. A randomized clinical trial of psilocybin assisted therapy for treatment of existential distress in cancer patients was recently completed at NYU School of Medicine with Stephen Ross, MD, Principal [...]

This lecture provides a rough overview of four decades of research into psychedelics in Europe and the US. Research “started again” in the mid-eighties, when European and American researchers penetrated through administrative barriers. Early MDMA psychotherapy research began in the end-1970s, modern German studies into [...]

Brain imaging and depression research with psychedelics The talk will review brain imaging work on the action of psychedelics on the brain and describe the results of a clinical trial assessing psilocybin as a treatment for depression. It will also review the broader societal impact of psychedelic drug-use and discuss its [...]

Will we be using Magic Mushrooms to fight depression? Or get an LSD treatment to cure your smoking addiction? On December 19 2012 Dutch Labyrint TV screened an episode about groundbreaking research using psychedelics in psychiatric treatment. Interviews with the scientists were filmed at OPEN's Interdisciplinary Conference on [...]

Contemporary esotericism is replete with references to impressive “mystical” or visionary experiences, which are typically credited with having radically changed people’s lives by bringing them into contact with a “spiritual” dimension of reality. Given the widely acknowledged fact that the contemporary neo-esoteric revival has its historical roots in the 1960s […]